The New Kent Resolves III- Postscript

The New Kent Resolves appeared first in the The Virginia Gazette of Williamsburg on July 21,1774. They were not the only county resolutions to appear of course, the same issue also had proclamations from York, Dinwiddie, Essex, Surry, and Chesterfield. The most famous remonstrance from a Virginia county was the Fairfax Resolves of July 18, 1774, authored primarily by George Mason with some assistance by George Washington. Washington was also connected deeply to the revolutionary power structure of New Kent. Burwell Bassett and Bartholomew Dandridge, New Kent's two delegates mentioned in the Resolves, were both his brothers-in-law. Bartholomew Dandridge was Martha's brother, and Burwell Bassett was married to Martha's sister, Anna Maria.

William Clayton the clerk of the meeting was the Clerk of the County Court. It was his office built on his own land a short distance from the court house that was burned by an arsonist in 1787 resulting in the loss of most of the county's colonial era records.